Defying all odds, Oneida junior Justine Jakubowski walks at prom after doctors said she'd never walk again (video)

ONEIDA >> After struggling through physical therapy, 16-year-old Justine Jakubowski did what doctors said was impossible -- she walked for her prom.

Justine joined her classmates on Saturday. After fighting some initial nervousness, she got out of her wheelchair and walked in the Grand March at Oneida High School with the help of her boyfriend Cody Muir. She received a standing ovation from the prom court and everyone in attendance.

"I'm so proud of her," Muir said. "I'm always here to help her out when she needs it."

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"I've known Justine since sixth grade," said classmate and friend Eliza Clements. "What she has gone through in the last year is nuts. Being able to walk after not walking for so long is amazing."

Justine went to Dibble's with the rest of her class to celebrate their junior year. After the prom, she said she is going to hang out with Muir, Clements and Doug Thurstan outside for a bonfire and a dip in Thurstan's hot tub.

On May 19, 2012, Justine was traveling home from Chittenango's prom with seven friends. The driver, 17-year-old Cody Domena, lost control of the vehicle on Route 31 near Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, careened over the shoulder and hit and severed a utility pole, flipping the SUV. All eight of the kids needed medical attention; Justine had to be extricated from the vehicle with the jaws of life.

After spending nearly two-and-a-half months in the hospital, Justine returned home in July. Considered quadriplegic, doctors told her family that she would never walk again. After months of physical and occupational therapy at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse and swimming therapy in Oneida, Justine has proved them wrong. Though she still has to spend most of her time in a wheelchair, Justine is able to walk with assistance.

"Finally overcoming it, I feel like a new person," Justine said Friday on the eve of her walk. "It's amazing, like I'm the strongest person in the world."

It took Justine over two months to take her first step. She had to leave school early every day to make the commute to Syracuse and undergo physical and occupational therapy. She said she lives day-to-day on a strict schedule, which has been difficult on her school work and social life.

Justine used a machine called the Lokomac, that revitalizes motor skills and retrains the brain to walk. Justine and her mother, Leah Jakubowski, said she may have never have come so far without the machine.

"It was so much more than learning to walk," Justine said. "My muscles needed to be rebuilt."

Although walking was the most difficult, Justine spent much of her time in physical therapy relearning other simple motor functions, from holding a cup to feeding herself. In the beginning, her mother said it was difficult for Justine to even sit up without fainting or getting dizzy. Everything has been relearned gradually for the high school junior.

Jakubowski also credited her daughter's progress to the community help they have received plus her daughter's demeanor, remaining happy despite what she has gone through.

"Justine has always had a good attitude," Jakubowski said. "I think that has really helped her progress. It was so painful to watch her struggle, and we've given so much, but I am proud of her."

"You need to keep it in your head that you will walk again," Justine said. "I had to stay headstrong and positive."

Leah Jakubowski had just finished school for nursing at Saint Elizabeth's in Utica the day of her daughter's accident. She has been out of work since then, helping to get her daughter to therapy and taking care of her. Because of Justine's progress, Jakubowski said she will be returning to work soon, and has just been hired as a registered nurse at St. Elizabeth's.

"It's a relief for her to be healthy enough for me to go back to work," Jakubowski said. "She keeps getting more and more independent."

Justine will be starting horseback riding therapy at ARISE in Chittenango, as well as a move to the Institute of Human Performance in Syracuse. She said her current goal is to be able to walk with a cane and eventually get her driver's license, though being able to attend her prom was exciting.

"I didn't know if I'd even be able to go to my own prom," Justine said. "I'm just glad I can participate, to just walk this weekend."